Balling drum



Jan. 12, 1960 H. T. STIRLING BALLING DRUM Filed Sept. 10. 1958 i ki l;

Mm x L 2 M w W T +5 BALLING DRUM Harold T. Stirling, Pittsburgh, Pa., assignor to Koppers Company, Inc., a corporation of Delaware Application September 10, 1958, Serial No. 760,265

4 Claims. (Cl. 18-1) The present invention relates in general to an improved rotary drum system for agglomerating fines into spherical bodies in the form of pellets and larger balls from finelydivided material, and more particularly, the invention relates to an improved apparatus for this general type but which is especially designed and adapted for balling wet or moistened finely-divided material, such as iron ore, fly ash, and glass grinding waste eflluent into firm, coherent pellets and balls while devoid of other binders, as Well as materials which might have, or require, an agglutinating substance, for the purpose of forming pellets and balls to provide beds of high gas permeability suitable for high speed sintering of agglomerates into cake form as disclosed in my copending application, Serial No. 725,752, filed April 1, 1958,. to produce a rigid, firm, dust-free product from the sinter cake.

A primary object of the present invention is the provision of a simple, more economical, and facile way of attaining the same throughput or capacity, without recycling of fines, from such rotary drum systems as is attained in the operation of said drums as heretofore with recycling of fines, to nodulize fines without a binder other than water into pellets or balls which give a bed of high United States Patent gas permeability suitable for sintering into a coherent Y agglomerated cake mass.

In sintering of the fines in continuous endless conveyor type sintering machines, it is necessary to nodulize or pelletize the fines before laying them onto the sintered strand in order to provide a layer or mass which is permeable to the throughflow of the gas or flame. Most materials can be nodulized with water as the sole binder since they contain inherent properties such that when wetted the balls produced become of such great density that they retain their shape and the desired bed permeability even after the moisture has been driven off, but

some other materials have characteristics which make it necessary to add in addition to Water agent in order to attain the same effect. Beds so formed give a sintering layer of high permeability which permit high rates of sintering with a minimum of re-runs or hot returns. 7

With such very high rate of sintering speed, the nodules must be prepared and supplied to the sinter strand as they are freshlyformed and at a rate sufliciently fast to maintain the continuity of a sintering layer at all times over the sintering strand.

This has sometimes necessitated in the prior art recycling of 'a largerportion of fines which might even approach as much as the end product of the rotary drum. As a result of this high volume of fines in such drums to maintain the output of properly sized nodules in the quantity required, much of the fresh fine material introduced at the inlet of the drums escapes as fines or as balls or pellets of improper size, which must be classified or screened from the rain product leaving the drums for delivery to the sintering machines. The capacity or throughput of these balling drums is thus limited by such fines unless special provisions are taken to recycle these an agglutinating 2,920,344 Patented an. 12, 1960 more economical, and facile way by means which avoid the discharge of fines from the discharge ends of such drums along with the nodules to be delivered to the sinter strand, thus eliminating the difiiculties and disadvantages of recycling fines to attain the rated capacity of the drums.

Accordingly,'the present invention provides for this purpose a conventional rotary drum that is operable about a generally horizontal axis and has radially extending annular baflles that project at spaced intervals along the drum from the inner circumference of the drum toward its axis of rotation in planes at right angles to said axis to provide for simulation in the drum of the tumbling and nodulizing action of the conventional disc pelletizer at repeated intervals along the drum from the feed inlet to the nodule discharge outlet from the drum. Annular deflectors are disposed each on an incline from a region closer to the axis of rotation on the downstream side of each baflle to a point more remote from the axis of rotation of the drum on the upstream side of a next bafilein the direction of the discharge end of the drum. The baflles are of progressively greater height along the drum from the discharge end toward the feed end, and the spacing between the bafiles decrease progressively from the feed end toward the discharge end to provide for longer retention times of the fines in the areas along the drum nearer the feed end than in those areas further along toward the discharge end. Conventional means for feeding wet fine particles are disposed to feed the same to the drum at its end having the wider spaces and the longer baflles, and conventional means for discharge of the nodules are provided at the opposite end of the drum having the shorter baffles.

This simple arrangement of baflles requires a greater proportion of the fines to reside in, and remain longer in, the entrance end areas than in the areas further along toward the discharge end until they become more firmly attached as coherent parts of nodules of a size to pass over the bafi les before the fine particle can pass from each baflle to the space between it and the next, so that a decreasing amount of fines ultimately reach the after baflles along the drum. As a consequence, only firm coherent nodules reach the discharge end. Screens for classifying the discharge nodules are unnecessary, and recycling steps and equipment eliminated.

A further important feature of the invention is the angle or pitch of the deflector. A pitch inclusive of 25 and below 50 for the deflectors has been found effective forballing each of the materials of the group of light finely-divided material, fiy-ash, waste glass grinding eifiuent, and some kinds of iron ore mixtures, and up to 40-50 has been found satisfactory for the heavier ma; terial, such as iron ore mixtures. The degree of pitch of these deflector plates will vary according to the physical characteristics and nature of the particular material being processed in the drum. In general, a pitch of 34 has been found effective for best mode of operation in processing each of the aforesaid materials.

In operation with the rotary axis of the drum in a true horizontal plane, the drum operates as a series of pseudo disc pelletizers without stress or strain on the bearings as occur with the drum elevated at one end to operate on an incline to the normal or horizontal position. In such horizontal plane the deflectors function as the incline plane of a disc pelletizer. In the elevated inclined position of the drum the deflectors may be omitted since then the inclined plane of the drums inner circumference acts to function in the same manner as the rotating inclined plane of a conventional disc pelletizer. However, the deflectors are also of utility in such inclined operation of the drum, since then the greater inclination afiorded avoids degradation of the nodules and results in faster throughput with a minimum of fines.

The invention, thus, is not limited in all its aspects to the use of the deflectors with the radial right angular baffles in increasingly greater depth in direction from the discharge end to the feed end. Also the decrease in spacing in the direction of the discharge end is not essential to all the aspects of the novel coaction of the invention of such baffle gradation, in reducing the amount of fines reaching the discharge end.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent as it is better understood from the following description when considered in connection with the accompanying drawings illustrating the best mode of practicing the same:

Figure 1 is a longitudinal side elevational view of a rotary drum embodying the best mode of the present invention;

Figure 2 is a vertical longitudinal sectional view of the same taken in line III1 of Figure 1;

Figure 3 is a vertical cross-sectional view taken on the line Ill-III of Figure 1.

The same reference numerals are used for like parts in each of the several views.

Referring to the drawings, the improved balling drum consists of a cylindrical, smooth inner-side shell 11, a scraper 13, a chute feeder 14, an end casing with a bottom discharge outlet 16, lifting scoops 19, and a motor drive 20.

Wet fines are fed to the chute 14 by an endless belt conveyor 21 and the finished nodulized product conveyed from the outlet 16 to feeder pans or other layering means for a continuous endless strand sintering machine by an endless conveyor 22.

The drum rotates on idler rolls 23 and is driven by the motor 24 through a driving mechanism in the form of a belt 25 and a chain 25 and gearing 26. The scoops 19 are mounted on a rod 27 supported at each end by pedestals 28. The scrapers 13 are carried by pipes 29 supported on the rod 27. The pipes 29 are interconnected by bars 30 that suspend the scrapers, and are adjustable at their ends to adjust the position of the scraper 13. The scoop bars 19 have scoops 19 thereon in the form of slightly deflected blades or knives at the ends of the bars which tend to push the layer material over into the next baffle section. The position of the scoops is adjustable so that the desired scooping action can be obtained to meet the requirements of a particular operating rate. The scoops and the scrapers, when adjusted, are then operated in a fixed position relative to the rotating drum.

The general aim of the drum is to simulate the action of a conventional disc pelletizer at successive intervals along the drum from the inlet to the outlet. This is attained by having the baflles 31 set annularly in transverse planes that are in general wholly in a plane at right angles to the longitudinal axis 27 of rotation of the drum, rather than at an acute angle, such as a spiral or serpentine baflle as in a customary balling drum or pugging drum.

In movable grate sintering, it is most desirable to have as high bed permeability as is possible in order to promote the highest possible amount of draft as well as uniform distribution of that draft. One of the most important factors which influence bed permeability is the sizing of feed to the sinter strand. Naturally, the larger and more uniform the sizing of the feed, the more open and permeable will be the bed.

It is evident that the mixing and preparation of the feed for a sintering machine is of vital importance to the whole sintering operation. In most movable grate sintering operations, the raw materials are mixed with the proper amount of water in either a balling drum, a pugging drum, or on a disc pelletizer. In all cases, the principal object is to produce pellets or balls of the raw material which are as uniform in size as is possible, in order to have uniform air flow for uniform sinter- The bailing drum or pugging drum are much the same in operation, in that they both depend upon the tumbling action of a revolving drum to mix and ball up the material during its passage through the drum. in the pugging drum, rotating paddles are also provided to further insure adequate mixing of the raw material and to move it through the drum.

The pelletizing disc is nothing more than an inclined revolving disc equipped with plows. The dry material is charged to the center of the disc and as it moves toward the outside, is mixed with water and balled up.

The conventional balling drum or pugging mill has several advantages over the pelletizing disc, most particularly, their higher throughput capacity. They have one great disadvantage, however, in that neither produce pellets of uniform size, making it sometimes necessary to screen out the fines in order to promote maximum bed permeability. The disc pelletizer is capable of producing pellets of more or less uniform size without screening. In addition to being of low capacity, the disc is mounted on a single central spindle and, because of the high rotating speeds, maintenance costs are much higher than those for a balling or pugging drum.

With the disc pelletizer, the revolution of the disc plus the scraping action of the plow causes the tumbling action that is conductive to good balling. As the balls increase in size and weight, centrifugal force tends to throw them toward the outside rim while the fines continue to remain in about the same location or even tend to move toward the center. Gradually, the formed balls reach sufficient size and weight that they move to the edge of the disc and are discharged over the rim. The diameter of the disc, its angle of inclination, and its speed of revolution can be suitably adjusted to control the degree of balling that is attained. In essence, all that the adjustment of these variables does is to change the retention time on the disc. The ability to control retention time plus the particular type of tumbling action that is induced by the revolution of the disc is felt to be the reason for the superior action of a disc pelletizer as compared to a conventional balling drum without baflies.

The employment of baffles 31 at right angles to the general line of the axis 27 of rotation of the drum 10, with the baffles 31 disposed annularly at spaced intervals along the inner surface 11 of the drum, results in the bafiles 31 in the drum retarding the flow of material and inducing sufficient tumbling action, as in the disc pelletizer, that is, to ball the material to the desired predetermined condition most suitable for sintering on a movable grate, while at the same time attaining the characteristic higher throughput or capacity of the ordinary balling drum or pugging drum without baffles, or with baffles in a spiral plane which tend to favor the flow of fines through the drum.

Thus, the material is made to flow through a number of, for instance six, pseudo disc pelletizers 31 as it passes through the drum. Observation of the material during actual operation of the drum tends to show that the action is like that of a disc pelletizer. That is, as the material enters a baflle section 31, the larger, heavier balls rapidly roll down the inclined drum surface or an two baflies 31, to be discharged into the next section .31 while the fines continue to move much more slowly down the inclined surface 32 and sometimes even appear to move back up such inclined surface 32.

It has been found by applicant that it is possible to achieve, in an inclined drum without recycling of fines, the same satisfactory balling action for sintering machines, with one type of sinterable material, but not with various other types of sinterable material, as is obtained with a series of conventional disc pelletizers but with the same higher capacity or throughput with recycling of fines, as in the conventional balling drums and pugging drums, with a retention time of 60-90 seconds. This was done with the baflies 31 spaced equally distant from each other along the inclined drum at succeeding 24 inch intervals and with the baflies 31 all of equal height of 3 inches each, and in a commercial installation the downdraft section in a sintering machine was decreased from 35 to 38 inches of water prior to the installation of the three inch high baffles to 25 to 27 inches of water with the aforementioned baffies equally spaced at 24 inch intervals.

With the various other types of sinterable material, it was found that with the drum operating in either an inclined or horizontal position, the balls produced were of more fragile nature and tended to disintegrate in flowing over the baffles, resulting in an excessive amount of fines for low bed permeability on the sintering machine, and made recycling of fines necessary to achieve the aforesaid full rate of capacity. In order to overcome the excessive production of fines and to avoid the difliculties and disadvantages of recycling the fines, it was first found this could be achieved in part with these other materials by means of the deflector 32 between the downstream sides 33 of the baffle 31 and a lower region of the upstream side 34 of each baffle 31, as shown on the drawing. It was ascertained that the deflectors would aid in reducing the amount of fines formed which must be recycled since, when optimum moisture for optimum balling Was added, it was (found that as the formed pellets flowed over the baffles 31 without the deflectors, there was a slight breakdown of pellets as a result of the fall. This partial degradation of the pellets is overcome by the deflector plates 32 on the downstream sides 33 of the bafiles.

With variations in the spacing of the bafiies and the height of the same to give the same angle to the deflectors throughout the drum, complete avoidance of fines is attained with all these other materials while still accomplishing the desired same full-rated capacity of the drum. In addition, better ball formation is attained and even .a drum of smaller surface area suflices to attain a larger throughput, than is possible with drums of larger surface area which do not have the baflles and spaces varied to progressively increase in size from the discharge end toward the feed inlet end of the drum.

In accordance with the present invention, the baffles 31 are arranged so that they increase in height about onehalf inch each progressively from the discharge outlet end 16 of the drum 11 to the feed inlet end 14 of the drum, and the bafiles 31 are spaced apart from each other lengthwise of the drum 11 in progressively decreasing amounts, such as those indicated on the drawing, from feed inlet end 14 to the discharge outlet end 16. The angle of inclination 35 at which the deflectors 32 are set in relation to the drum inner circumference 11 is between 25 and 50". With this arrangement of these parts, the formation of firm coherent nodules of the desired uniform size and degree of permeability for sintering machine gases is maintained at the same full rate of capacity without production of fines at the outlet end 16, which would have to be screened out from the finished nodules before delivery to the belt 22 for sintering, and then recycled back in at 14 to maintain the stream deflectors pitched at 25 -50 'for seeding of pellets.

full-rated production of these machines as heretofore devised for the same purpose of continuously supplying nodules for' sintering on continuous sinter strand types of ore pellet sintering machines. Such novel arrangement of parts is also of like utility for forming pellets for sintering fly ash and glass grinding waste eflluent. The combination of the right angle baflies with downhas been found to be the best mode of construction, not ing is satisfactory with both coarse and also because it is possible to produce a uct while operating in the horizontal position, which is more advantageous than operation in the inclined position, since the latter involves special engineering and construction to accommodate the thrust on thrust bearings at the tower end of the drum to minimize maintenance and upkeep costs on the driving mechanism.

The balls produced are all of such uniform size that no screening out of fines is necessary as has been the case with other types of balling drums. The productiop rate is maintained without resort to recycling of fines Production rates up to 1.0 ton per hour per square foot of drum surface are attainable, but a rate between 0.6 and 0.8 ton per hour per square foot of drum surface is deemed to be the rate at which optimum balling takes place. The product produced is one in which its layer permeability is such that in a 12 inch pot test the average air flow increased from 81.5 cu. ft. per minute for material prepared in a conventional balling drum without bafiies to 108.2- cu. ft. per minute for the same material prepared in the drum of this invention with the variously spaced sloping deflectors. This increase in air flow by 32.7% is indicative of the increased permeability that is achieved through the use of the balling drum improved as described above.

In operation with glass grinding efliuent material, fly ash, and iron ore concentrates, the material in the wet condition for balling is fed from the belt 21 into the chute 14 which flows the wet material onto the first deflector 32 during rotation of the drum. The material tumbles there as in a disc pelletizer until it balls up to sizes large enough to flow over the radial baflles 31, whence it descends by gravity along the next deflector, and so on through all sections 31. The retention time of the fines is longer in the forepart areas than the after areas so that the amount of fines decrease from section to section until the last section passes only nodules devoid of loose fines. The dimensions of the drum, its speed of rotation, its degree of inclination, and type, size, and spacing, and height of the baffles 31, are all variable, depending upon the desired throughput capacity and balling characteristics of the particular materials to be processed. The general operating principal of any modification of the drum is that the baffles are so designed and located to retard the flow of material and induce sufficient tumbling action to ball the material to the desired predetermined condition that is most suitable for sintering on a movable grate.

The invention as hereinabove set forth is embodied in a particular form of construction but may be variously embodied within the scope of the claims hereinafter made.

I claim:

1. Balling drum apparatus for agglomerating substantially spherical bodies of predetermined size from wet finely-divided material devoid or with binder other than water comprising: a drum mounted for rotation about its longitudinal axis in -a generally horizontal plane; means for supplying material into one horizontal end of the drum during rotation thereof; means for withdrawing nodules of said material from the opposite horizontal end of said drum during rotation thereof; radially extending annular baflles projecting inwardly, at spaced intervals along the drum from the inner circumference thereof towards its longitudinal axis of-rotation with each baflie fine materials, but satisfactory prodonly because ball-' in a plane at a right angle to said axis to provide re tardation of the flow of fine material along the length of the drum; annular deflectors each disposed on an incline from a region closer to the axis of rotation on the downstream side of each bafl ie to a point more remote from said axis on the upstream side of a next bathe in the direction of the discharge end of the drum; said bafifles being of greater height progressively along the drum from the discharge end toward the feed end thereof, and the spaces between the bafiles decreasing progressively along the drum from the feed end toward the discharge end to provide longer retention times of the fines in the areas along the drum nearer the feed end than in those areas further along toward the discharge end, and said deflectors being inclined between the bafiles with a pitch within the range of 25 and 50; scrapers in scraping relation with the spaces between the battles for causing material to drop and roll in the drum; and scoops in scooping relation in said spaces for overflow of nodules over the baffles.

2. Bailing drum apparatus for agglomerating substantially spherical bodies of predetermined size from wet finely divided material devoid of binder other than water comprising: a drum mounted for rotation about its longitudinal axis in a generally horizontal plane; means for supplying material into one horizontal end of the drum during rotation thereof; means for withdrawing nodules of said material from the opposite horizontal end of said drum during rotation thereof; radially extending annular oaflies projecting inwardly, at spaced intervals along the drum, from the inner circumference thereof towards its longitudinal axis of rotation with each baffle in a plane at a right angle to said axis to provide retardation of the flow of fine material along the length of the drum; annular deflectors each disposed on an incline from a region closer to the axis of rotation on the downstream side of each baffle to a point more remote from said axis on the upstream side of a next bafile in the direction of the discharge end of the drum; said baffles being of greater height progressively along the drum from the discharge end toward the feed end thereof, and the spaces between the baffles decreasing progressively along the drum from the feed end toward the discharge end to provide longer retention times of the fines in the areas along the drum nearer the feed end than in those areas further along toward the discharge end; scrapers in scraping relation with the spaces between the bafiles for causing material to drop and roll in the drum.

3. Balling drum apparatus for agglomerating substan tially spherical bodies of predetermined size from wet finely-divided material devoid of binder other than water comprising: a drum mounted for rotation about its longitudinal axis in a generally horizontal plane; means for supplying material into one horizontal end of the drum during rotation thereof; means for withdrawing nodules of said material from the opposite horizontal end of said drum during rotation thereof; radially extending annular baifles projecting inwardly, at spaced intervals along the drum, from the inner circumference thereof towards its longitudinal axis of rotation with each bafile in a plane at a right angle to said axis to provide retardation of the flow of fine material along the length of the drum; annular deflectors each disposed at a 34 pitch on an incline from a region closer to the axis of rotation on the downstream side of each baffle to a point more remote from said axis on the upstream side of a next baffle in the direction of the discharge end of the drum to provide longer retention times of the fines in the areas along the drum; scrapers in scraping relation with the spaces between the baffles for causing material to drop and roll in the drum.

4. Balling drum apparatus for agglomerating substantially spherical bodies of predetermined size from wet finely-divided material devoid or with binder other than water comprising: a drum mounted for rotation about its longitudinal axis in a generally horizontal plane; means for supplying material into one horizontal end of the drum during rotation thereof; means for Withdrawing nodules of said material from the opposite horizontal end of said drum during rotation thereof; radially extending annular bafiies projecting inwardly, at spaced intervals along the drum, from the inner circumference thereof toward its longitudinal axis of rotation with each baffle in a plane at a right angle to said axis to provide retardation of the flow of fine material along the length of the drum; annular deflectors each disposed at a pitch of 25 50 on an incline from a region closer to the axis of rotation on the downstream side of each baffle to a point more remote from said axis on the upstream side of a next battle in the direction of the discharge end of the drum to provide longer retention times of the fines in the areas along the drum; scrapers in scraping relation with the spaces between the baffles for causing material to drop and roll in the drum.

Retererces Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,127,137 Price Aug. 16, 1938 

